This relates generally to styluses, and, more particularly, to styluses that provide input to external equipment such as equipment with touch screen displays and other touch sensitive devices.
Touch sensors are used in equipment such as tablet computers, cellular telephones, and drawing tablets. In many situations, a user may provide touch input by pressing a finger against the surface of a touch sensor. By moving the finger across the sensor, the user may manipulate displayed objects and may provide other input.
Touch input may also be provided using computer styluses. A stylus may have an elongated shape with a pointed tip to facilitate drawing and other activities. An electronic device can use a touch sensor to monitor the position of the tip of the stylus. The device can then draw a line on a display or take other suitable action in response to movement of the stylus tip across the sensor.
It can be challenging for a user to interact with electronic equipment using a computer stylus. In some situations, a display is not sufficiently large to contain all of a user's work, so scrolling to different portions of a screen becomes necessary. Scrolling using stylus scrolling wheels or scrolling wheels in other devices such as computer mice can be cumbersome. It can also be difficult use a stylus to perform complex operations such as object rotations, zooming operations, and other operations without requiring a large number of interactions between the stylus and the touch sensor.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide an improved stylus for providing input to electronic equipment.